017 - Omnic and Otherwise
Bon Bon sat at her desk, staring at the Mirror Portal. She was not the only ‘secretary’ watching the relic anymore – shifts had been arranged, and usually there were two or three on duty at any given time. For the moment, however, she was at the desk alone. Nobody had come through the Mirror Portal in some time, probably since it was in its “Binary” connection period, and the Binaries didn’t want people without invitations showing up. It was due to switch locations in a few minutes, however.
Bon Bon looked at all the papers in front of her. She had mixed feelings about all the data she gathered from those who came and went. The notes were perhaps the most important pieces of paper for Equestria, and yet most everything on them was boring. Occasionally there was someone suspicious who needed to be watched for a while, but for the most part it was just… notes. Notes on people.
Then again, she supposed if she kept getting bored the Pinkie Sage might show up again and trash the joint. It was only a matter of time before something else like that happened. Maybe she should revel in the present dull moment…
A swiveling office chair slid up next to Bon Bon’s desk, Lyra the unicorn lounging on it. “Hey, Sweetie, when do you get off work?”
Bon Bon facehooved. “Lyra…”
“What?”
“You know what.”
“You also know there’s no way anypony knows what that means. This sounds like a perfectly normal, albeit sappy, conversation.”
Bon Bon raised an eyebrow. “It did until that moment.”
“…Horsefeathers. Now they’re onto me.”
Bon Bon rolled her eyes. “My shift ends in an hour.”
“Mind if I stick around ‘til then?”
Bon Bon should have said no, but she was already a little bored, nothing was happening, and Lyra’s adorable expression was an unfair weapon. “You can stay.”
“Woo!” Lyra slid her office chair next to Bon Bon’s. Luckily the desk could seat two easily. “All right, so, what’re the secrets of the day?”
Bon Bon shrugged, lifting up a piece of paper. “Not much. The Binaries are hairy and grumpy, as usual.”
“Aren’t they always?”
“Lyra, have you even met one?”
Lyra pursed her lips. “No… But I hear a lot about them! Secluded, xenophobic, and paranoid!”
“Close,” Bon Bon said. “What most people don’t realize is that they’re scared. They were scared of magic because they have no way to stop it. Now they’re scared of everything because their edge – their technology – is far outclassed by that of the Tau’ri. They feel like the multiverse is a competition and that they are slated to lose.”
“Huh. I guess so… Wouldn’t they outclass our Earth, though? I mean, I did a lot of studying of their culture, and ‘Earth Vitis’ isn’t exactly an advanced or magical place.”
“They don’t need to be dead last to be afraid.”
“Good point…” Lyra scratched her chin, looking around them. “You know, all these humans walking about are much less of a big deal than I thought they’d be. Ponies aren’t really surprised they exist, and you can see one walking around Ponyville on any given day. Yet when I was all talking about humans I was seen as crazy.”
Bon Bon shook her head. “Ponies believe what they see.”
“And that includes you,” Lyra prodded.
“Er… Yes,” Bon Bon said, flustered. “I… Well I’m still not sure there were ancient humans on Equestria, but humans certainly do exist. Again, I’m sorry.”
Lyra smirked. “It’s okay. Didn’t really mind that much that ponies didn’t believe me… Most of the time. That said… Humans are a lot less interesting than I thought they’d be.”
“How so?”
Lyra put a hoof to her chin. “Well, I don’t know, I think I was expecting more than a bunch of apes with big imaginations? I was expecting a race that could mold worlds into what they wanted, not these people who regularly fight among themselves over every little thing.”
Bon Bon smirked. “They’re just different, Lyra. Humans are generally more innovative and determined than we are, though this comes with stubbornness and more violent tendencies. But think about it from their perspective. We have magic and significantly tighter ‘community’ than they do, but we’re also a bit too trusting and can be emotionally compromised somewhat easily. That said, I am just speaking in generalizations here.”
“Hrm…” Their conversation was brought to an end when the Mirror Portal changed its destination to ‘Earth Tau’ri’. Like clockwork – which the Tau’ri were so fond of – Daniel Jackson and a small team of Stargate Command personnel walked into the Hub. Daniel walked right up to Bon Bon. “Contact Twilight Sparkle, we’re requesting the assistance of her team.”
Bon Bon raised an eyebrow. “What for?”
“We’ve been shot at by an alternate universe and would like some assistance on getting them to think before they shoot.”
Lyra turned to Bon Bon. “That sounds like a perfectly valid reason to me. “
Bon Bon nodded, pulling out her dimensional device. “Give me a moment, I’ll pass on the message.” She left, leaving Lyra with Daniel.
Lyra looked at the desk in front of her. “…She does know I have no idea how to do this job, right?”
Daniel shrugged. “From what little I know of her, that does seem like something she’d know and purposefully exploit in an act of petty revenge.”
“…Greeeeeat…”
~~~
“Okay, so…” A human man with strangely fluffy hair said, adjusting his General’s uniform as he paced in front of a computer screen. “Dimension E-17 is the topic of discussion today.”
Pinkie raised a hoof. “General Landry?”
Landry pointed at her. “Yes?”
“Why give it such a boring number of a name?”
Landry shrugged. “It’s how we do things. If the natives have a name for it, we’ll call it that, but at the moment such a designation is not really an option.”
“Since they shot at you,” Rarity supplemented.
“Yeah, I’m curious about how that happened,” Fluttershy said. “Did you provoke them in some way? We’ve done that…”
Landry blinked. “You all have never been in an official briefing before, have you?”
Twilight smiled sheepishly. “Nope! I just tell everypony what we’re doing and then we go do it.”
“You ponies could stand to get more organized…”
“It does prevent there from being tons of paperwork,” Daniel pointed out.
“Much as I hate to admit it, paperwork exists for a reason.”
“And there is tons of paperwork,” Twilight reminded them. “Spike just does most of it, and it’s nowhere near as esoteric as your monstrosities.”
“Ooo! Esoteric!” Pinkie clicked her tongue. “Nice word!”
“Thank you.”
Landry shrugged. “This is certainly one of the more interesting briefings I’ve had… Anyway, yesterday, at approximately fifteen-hundred hours, the Hammond entered a new universe that was near our own as part of a routine scanning mission. The crew was able to determine that they were around another version of Earth, like most universes around here, before they got shot at by surface weapons. Their weapons were not large enough to be a significant threat to the Hammond’s shields, but they were large enough to grab our attention. The Hammond left the universe after leaving a ‘we come in peace’ message that got no response.”
“Could be the translation spell just didn’t have their language figured out,” Twilight suggested. “Actually, I have no idea if the translation spell works on long-range communication or not…”
Landry nodded. “Something to look into. Regardless, we attempted to take a physical team through a dimensional device to the universe, and were shot at by automated turrets the second we stepped through the gate. No fatalities, but a couple men were shot up pretty badly.”
“So what are we doing here, then?” Rarity asked.
“The idea is simple – we’re going to go in through the dimensional device again, this time with you ponies though. You can easily defend against turrets, but more importantly you’ll give them pause because, well, you’re ponies. Use those friend-making skills of yours and see if we can get them to stop shooting at us.”
Pinkie grinned. “You can count on us!”
“Is anybody coming with us?” Twilight asked.
Daniel shook his head. “It’s possible they just don’t trust us, for whatever reason. You five will be it. But we’ll be ready if you need to fall back.”
Twilight smirked. “In that case, we accept this mission. Time to go see the inhabitants of… E-17. What’s the E stand for anyway?”
“Earth,” Landry said. “Seventeenth Earth we’ve found with your devices.”
“Ah. I see. To the gate room then?”
“To the gate room,” Daniel confirmed. He moved to lead them to the room, but Nova decided it’d just be faster to teleport them.
Daniel frowned. “…Is there any way to block teleportation?”
Twilight furrowed her brow. “Yes, but the spells are complicated. Usually you just lock the unicorn’s magic if you don’t want them teleporting…”
“How do those anti-teleport spells work?”
“It creates a field of magical energy that prevents a connection from being able to form between point A and B. I don’t know of any non-magical way to create this effect though, sorry.”
“You mind teleport-proofing some places in the base?”
Twilight smiled. “I don’t mind at all. It’ll take some time to make them permanent, though, especially considering how little magic there is to work with here.”
“Thanks. That’ll get the paranoid security people off our backs.”
“Why do you care so much about security?” Fluttershy asked.
“Have you ever had someone try to chase you back through a portal and take over your world?”
Nova nodded. “Once or twice.”
“You’ve been lucky. Happens all the time here. Most of them never make it through the gate, but those that do cause a lot of damage.”
“Our corner of the multiverse does seem a lot more friendly,” Fluttershy admitted. “The biggest problem we’ve ever had to face is Ba’al. And you’re helping with that.”
Twilight pulled out her dimensional device. “So… What are the coordinates to ‘E-17’?”
Daniel smiled. “You can find them in the directory, but we won’t need to use yours. We have one of the devices installed in the ceiling. Walter should have it dial E-17 anytime now… Stand back, just in case they start shooting on connection.”
The dimensional device activated, creating a large portal at the base of the ramp leading to the stargate. Daniel poked his head around the edge of it. “No bullets. That’s a good sign.” He gestured for them to go on through.
Twilight raised a shield around them just in case, and the five of them stepped through.
“We’ll reconnect in fifteen minutes if you aren’t back,” Daniel said. “I suggest reporting in before then so we don’t cause drama.”
Twilight nodded. “Gotcha.” She led her four friends through the portal, looking around cautiously. The world they came out in was a ghost town. Large pine trees grew around old, crumbling concrete walls. There was evidence of a recent firefight – maybe a day old. The concrete walls were riddled with bullet holes, and there were a couple of broken machines that resembled mounted turrets.
Nothing fired at them. In the distance, they could hear a bird chirping.
Nova activated the drone, tossing it into the air. “I guess you can drop the shield now?”
Twilight cautiously dropped the shield – nothing fired at them.
Everything looked abandoned.
Pinkie blinked. “I don’t see anyone here. What were they so concerned about?”
“Maybe whoever was here thought they’d won the fight…” Rarity mused.
“Or they disabled the turrets and didn’t realize it?” Nova suggested.
“I don’t know,” Twilight said. “All I know is that we’re going to have a look around. Let’s not split up this time, okay?”
~~~
“Hey, Genji, maybe we should split up! Cover more ground that way!”
The cyborg-ninja took a long, deep, annoyed breath. He looked to his teammate with an exasperated expression, though since his entire face was covered by a metal mask akin to the rest of his body armor, his look went unseen.
She deduced that he was annoyed anyway. She put her hands on her hips and raised her eyebrow – an expression Genji could see through her orange-tinted goggles. “What’s wrong with that Genji?”
Genji stood up, craning his neck around a nearby concrete wall. “There was gunfire exchanged, Tracer. We don’t want to get ambushed by Talon or… something else.”
Tracer took her hands off her hips and shrugged. “Hey, you know if I’m ambushed I can always just go back.” She tapped a glowing blue machine affixed to the coat on her chest. “Recall! Saving Tracer’s life since-“
“You and I both know that isn’t perfect. We can’t take the chances.”
“Oh come on! There’s not even anything here anymore! I’m not even convinced there was anything to begin with! We’re in Colorado. What’s important in Colorado?”
“We are on the site of what was once a United States military base, one of several that were destroyed in the Omnic Crisis.”
“Oh,” Tracer said. “…So secret government secrets here?”
“That’s the thing. We don’t know. So we have to be cautious.”
“…Fine… But how long do we keep looking around before we can tell Winston that there’s nothing here and that report was completely bogus?”
Genji made no response. He just moved forward, stealthily, cautiously, while Tracer just followed behind him not making any attempt to be silent whatsoever. “Genji, why are you being so slow? We’ve got no-“
“I’m looking for interesting details,” Genji defended, even though he was mostly moving silently by habit. He pointed between two trees. “See that over there? That’s a busted automatic turret left over from the Omnic Crisis.”
“Oh! Cool!” She lifted up her leg, preparing to dash for it. Genji grabbed her.
“Tracer…”
“Fine, where’s the vantage point you had in mind?”
Genji pointed to a still-standing concrete building. It was missing a roof but the second floor had plenty of cover in it. Genji leaped in one of the windows gracefully – Tracer just phased in an out of existence, effectively teleporting next to him with a quick swish of blue energy.
They looked through a window that, somehow, still had all its glass in it. They could see a ‘clearing’ of sorts made from a set of walls that once made up a storage facility. Genji used his cybernetic vision to scan the area, noting four separate busted turrets and a lot of bullet holes. The damage was fresh – within the day, at least.
Tracer frowned. “Okay, so this is where the thing happened. But why?”
“The warehouse might have held something valuable…” Genji suggested. “But I don’t see evidence of movement anywhere else but this small area…”
“So, we dealing with another ninja then?”
“Even I leave tracks of some sort,” Genji muttered. He stood up, ready to go closer and learn more. But then he saw space itself rippling slightly. He sat down, quickly, pushing Tracer lower as well. They kept their heads as low as possible, staring through the window at the space below.
A hole in reality opened up, showing the two of them an interesting interior dominated by a very large ring-like device covered in strange markings and orange chevrons.
“What is that?” Tracer asked.
“Shh,” Genji hissed.
A few moments later, some beings came out of the side of the portal opposite them. The idea of a two-sided portal of infinite thinness boggled Genji’s mind slightly. Clearly, however, he had more important things to consider besides the bizarre application of physics.
The creatures who came through were horses – no, wait, they were a little too small to be horses. Ponies. But even that wasn’t quite right – their eyes were too large and forward facing, their mane and coat colors were far too bright, and there were wings and horns on some of them.
He quickly began to assess them – they had come through in a defensive formation, a purple forcefield around them all. They had taken a quick look around, launched a small drone into the air, and then dropped the shield in favor of looking around. They were talking amongst themselves, though Genji had no idea what the language was. They were unarmed save for the drone itself, and Genji wasn’t even sure it had a weapons system.
The purple one was clearly the leader, as could be inferred from the way all the others looked at her. Her position might have been due to her unique combination of both a horn and wings, or because she was the one with a strange device held in her hooves… somehow. She walked with confidence and curiosity, her eyes a strange mixture of childlike innocence and deep thought. The pink unicorn was Genji’s best guess for a right hand man – er, pony. She stayed near the purple one, commenting on things she said, and seemed to be suggesting possible courses of action or answers to questions.
The others Genji couldn’t really place as part of the unit. The white one walked with grace and confidence, and had a bit of style to her the others didn’t. Perhaps the diplomat or communicator? The yellow one talked the least, but was by no means timid or uncertain, though she was clearly more jumpy and not trained. And then… the pink one.
The pink one bounced around like she was made of rubber, talked a lot, and at one point pulled a pastry out of her mane and ate it. Genji was certain it could not have been there before.
“…What are they?” Tracer whispered.
“Ponies. Unicorns. ‘Magical’.”
“They’re adorable.”
“They could also be dangerous. They are exhibiting abilities which I cannot explain.”
“You can’t explain your dragon sword.”
“The dragon is dangerous.”
Tracer frowned. “…I think I’m going to go say hi.”
“…Just because they look harmless doesn’t mean they aren’t.”
“Well how are we going to find out if we don’t interact?”
Genji nodded. “Go ahead then. I’ll bail you out if you need it.”
Tracer waved. “Pfft, as if!”
Genji considered if it would have been more appropriate to say ‘when you need it’, but that was neither here nor there. Not to mention the fact that Tracer had already left, teleporting on top of a crumbling wall and waving to the ponies. “Hello!”
The ponies tensed at first, and for a split second Genji moved his hand to his sword’s hilt, preparing for a fight. However, their nervous expressions vanished rather quickly as they realized Tracer was just waving to them with a smile. They waved back and said something in their bizarre, alien language.
“Sorry, ‘fraid I can’t understand a word you’re saying!” Tracer said, leaping down to be closer to the ponies. She pointed at herself. “Tracer.”
“Twilight,” the purple pony said, pointing to herself, and then slowly introducing the other ponies as well. Twilight pointed to her mouth and rolled her hoof in a circle, while talking rather quickly. The pink one – Pinkie – joined in as well.
“My, I haven’t the foggiest idea what you want from me!” Tracer said.
Genji sighed, accessing his radio. “Tracer, they want you to keep talking so they can work out your language.”
“Oh!” Tracer laughed. “Oh that makes a lot of sense. Hi! I guess I’m just supposed to talk to you while… whatever you have translates. My gosh, a translation device would be great for the world, I mean given our job it’s rather annoying to have to find-“
“Find!” Twilight spoke in English, clear enough for everyone to hear.
“Oh! It seems to be working! Brilliant!” Tracer clapped. “Hey Genji! Come down here, I want to see if-“
“Don’t reveal my location to them, I’m - dammit, they see me.”
Nova waved at him and said something. The words “safe” and “afraid” came through. She was probably telling him not to be afraid. The realization that she thought he was afraid annoyed him, because he was not. He was just being cautious. But at this point hiding was no longer helpful, so he leaped out of the ceilingless vantage point and landed squarely next to Tracer. The motion made a few of the ponies jump, but not as tensely as when they’d seen Tracer.
Tracer playfully nudged Genji. “This is Genji.”
“Hi Genji!” Pinkie said, grinning.
Twilight lit her horn, looking at Tracer, then to Genji. She said something about “unusual” and “power.”
Genji looked at Tracer. “A full translation would be appreciated. You know what to do.”
Tracer took a deep breath and launched into a long rant about how cute Winston could be. “He’s just the biggest, coolest, smartest gorilla around! He’s definitely in charge but it’s just so hard to take him seriously sometimes because of the way he opens the peanut butter and the bananas, and, well, even though he saved my life, which I am eternally grateful for, there’s just something about that cute ape expression that just… Oh I don’t know how to describe it, you’d have to meet him!”
Genji facepalmed at her choice of topic.
About twenty seconds later, Fluttershy raised a hoof. “So, I’m confused, since I only got half the conversation… Are we talking about a person or a gorilla?”
Tracer blinked. “Oh. It’s done then? Ah, well, Winston’s both! A gorilla with a brilliant mind! Born on the moon!”
Fluttershy blinked. “That just gives me more questions.”
Genji folded his hands together. “You can ask later. Right now, we need to figure out what you are and what you’re doing here.”
Twilight cleared her throat. “We are a group of interdimensional explorers from another universe entirely.”
Genji nodded. Considering that they were sapient ponies, that wasn’t such a crazy idea.
“With me? Good. In this particular instance we weren’t just exploring random universes, we were asked to come here since another set of explorers got shot at every time they came here.” Twilight gestured at the turrets. “They figured we’d need to talk some people down, but so far that hasn’t seemed necessary.”
Tracer gasped. “They shot at you? How could they!”
Rarity shook her head. “No no, dear, they were humans, just like you and… I presume Genji here.”
Genji made no comment. Tracer gasped. “My stars, your voice is so refined!”
Rarity beamed. “Finally! Someone who gets it! It takes a bit of work to get it this way. Your accent is delightful as well, by the by.”
“And once again I am forced to wonder how the spell deals with accents,” Twilight muttered.
“Spell…?” Tracer asked.
“Ah, right. We’re magical creatures, using the magic we were born with to translate all languages we come in contact with. I… Figured you’d actually know what magic was, considering Genji has a somewhat large amount in him.”
Tracer whipped to look at Genji. “…Dragons.”
Genji nodded slowly. “Presumably. I am far from a normal individual, Twilight Sparkle. Only members of the Shamada clan are known to have this ‘magic’, as you say.”
Pinkie grinned. “That just makes your magic more unique!”
“It is a proud heritage.”
Twilight smiled. “Well, it looks like there’s nothing to worry about here. We can talk more, but we need to report back to those who hired us.”
“And we should probably call in someone qualified to deal with a first-contact scenario!” Tracer said, nudging Genji. “Make the call!”
“In a minute,” Genji said. “I want to see how they do this.”
Twilight held out the dimensional device and activated it with her magic. The space rippled again, tearing a hole through existence, revealing the same interior as before, albeit seen from the other side. A human man blinked. “I take it that went well?”
“Very,” Twilight said, smiling. “Daniel, this is Tracer and Genji. Tracer, Genji, this is Daniel Jackson from Stargate Command.”
Tracer nudged Genji. “Hey. Look at that thing printed on his shirt.” She was referring to an upside down V with a circle on top of it. “Look familiar?”
Genji nodded. “That it does. Mister Jackson, would you by chance have anything to do with a ship that appeared in orbit about a day ago?”
Jackson stepped through the portal as it closed behind him. “Yes, actually. We tried to contact your world but you shot at us.”
“Some of us are trigger happy. Some of us also thought you may have been an attack.”
“Do you have alien problems?” Daniel asked.
Genji shook his head. “Not that I know of. But if anyone were to create a spaceship, it would be Omnics.”
“…What are Omnics?” Pinkie asked.
“I should not be the one to answer that question,” Genji said. “I also should not be the one making first contact. Excuse me while I contact base and get someone more… qualified.”
Daniel nodded. “I understand. I can wait here as long as you need.”
Genji stepped outside the walls, leaving Tracer to talk with the ponies and Mister Jackson. He activated his long-distance radio. “Overwatch command, come in.”
A deep but friendly voice came in on the other end. “This is Winston. What have you found?”
“It’s not Talon, nor is it Omnic. But it is something. We’ve got what are essentially aliens from another universe.”
“…That’s not what I was expecting.”
“They are responsible for the ship in orbit, so they have access to advanced technology, though they don’t seem to know what an Omnic is.”
“Could be they just know them by another name… This is exciting. How are they reacting to you?”
“Well enough. They seem to be friendly. I am requesting we get a qualified diplomat here before Tracer causes some kind of cultural offense.”
“Backup is on its way. Mei and Zenyatta should be there within the hour.”
“Good. If you need me or Tracer for another mission, we can leave the moment they arrive.”
“Nothing’s happening at the moment. I am mildly surprised the data was legitimate, though. I was half-expecting a Talon ploy.”
“As was I. Tracer, evidently, was not.”
“I don’t think anyone could have predicted this.” Genji heard a few buttons getting pushed on the other end of the line. “Tell me about these otherworlders, I’m curious.”
~~~
While her friends talked with Genji and Tracer and waited for the others to arrive, Fluttershy found herself thinking. Thinking about the two people they’d met, and what else they knew about this world. Fluttershy had decided Tracer was a cross between Rarity and Pinkie Pie, a woman who had the qualities of both but not to the extremes they did. Excitable, stylish, optimistic, and a bit ‘fancy’ some of the time. She was trustworthy.
Genji was a lot harder to get a read on. Part of this was because his face was hidden behind a mask, but that wasn’t all. The cyborg-ninja didn’t talk too much, and only said what needed to be said. While Tracer was all about telling them about her life, Genji was silent, only stepping in to keep Tracer from giving a ‘bad impression’ of something.
He really didn’t want her talking about ‘Omnics’, whatever they were. Fluttershy wasn’t sure if it was something bad, or just controversial. Apparently she was destined to find out when the others arrived.
Fluttershy had managed to discern that the two of them were part of an organization called Overwatch, though as for what that organization did, she had no idea. Something that required ‘heroes’, considering Tracer’s constant overuse of the word. So they at least viewed themselves as good people, but… Well, Fluttershy wanted to trust them, but they’d been taken advantage of too many times at this point to just give new worlds the benefit of the doubt.
It was sad, really.
Tracer pointed at Twilight. “Hey, are all your names meant to be literal?”
Twilight blinked. “What do you mean?”
“Well, you’re Twilight, and you have colors similar to the time of twilight, and have a butt-tattoo similar of stars.”
Nova snorted and Pinkie burst into laughter. Twilight blinked. “…I can’t believe I’ve never heard butt-tattoo before…”
“O’Neill calls them that when we aren’t looking,” Pinkie managed to say through her snorts.
Twilight rolled her eyes. “Of course he does… They’re actually called cutie marks.”
It was Tracer’s turn to snort, trying in vain not to laugh. Twilight facehooved. “All right then, the cycle of stupidity has made its rounds. But, yeah, I suppose our names are supposed to be literal, though not always.”
“Really?” Tracer said. “But I see a night-like Twilight, a star-like and colorful Nova, a cultured and ‘rare’ Rarity, a pink Pinkie, and a…” She looked at Fluttershy. “…Hrm. Okay, you’re the oddball. You don’t seem shy to me, just quiet.”
Fluttershy smiled. “Glad to hear that. I used to be really shy, but I worked most of it out.”
Tracer frowned. “Must be annoying to be called Fluttershy then.”
“…Why?”
“Everyone’s going to think you’re shy until you do something… uh… what’s the opposite of shy?”
“…Confident?” Nova suggested.
“There we go! Yeah, Fluttershy, the name doesn’t do you service! I thought I had to dance around you and be extra nice. Would have kept thinking that had you not spoken up those few times.”
Fluttershy nodded slowly. “I know…”
“We need to change our names anyway,” Nova said. “We have to be able to differentiate ourselves from our other universe doubles. I used to be Starlight, now I’m Nova.”
“I like my name, though,” Fluttershy said. “It’s… me.”
“Then just change it a little,” Tracer suggested. “Like… Only keep the parts that are still you! Like, oh… Just Flutter?”
“Or Flutters! Like what Dashie calls you!”
Fluttershy blinked. “I suppose that could work… Seems rather obvious now that you think about it.”
“You could replace ‘Shy’ with something,” Nova pointed out. “Remember Starbeat? Or Lieshy?”
Fluttershy shook her head. “I don’t think so. I’m also not sure about ‘Flutters’…”
“The chances of you being able to shirk the name are minimal, dear,” Rarity said. “It’s why I’m not letting anypony suggest anything until I’m sure of what I want.”
Pinkie inched towards Rarity, breaking off from a one-sided conversation with Genji. “What about Ravish?”
“Pinkie, no.”
“Aw come on! I’ve already changed my name, why do you need to be the holdout?”
“No you haven’t,” Twilight said. “You tell us a name, then change it the next day. Last week you were Pinkus. There’s also been Punky, Prelude, Paparazzi, Pizza, Ponk, Ordvoir, Spanglish, and a number of others. Today you’re, apparently, Paroni. You need to settle.”
“Maybe you just need to settle for me!”
Tracer put her hand to her chin. “I wonder if there are alternate versions of me I’ll need to deal with…”
“There probably are,” Daniel said. “But you won’t have the same problem they do, since your universe isn’t surrounded by others almost exactly like it. I wouldn’t worry about changing your name unless you make a habit of running into yourself.”
“Knowing her, it’s not unlikely,” Genji offered. He tapped his helmet. “They’re almost here, by the way.”
Daniel stood up. “Should I be expecting anything weird?”
Tracer shrugged. “Well, Zenny’s not exactly ‘normal’, but he’s not scary either, so-“
A synthetic voice greeted all of their ears. “Not ‘normal’ or ‘scary’? My dear Tracer, that’s how you decide to describe me?”
Fluttershy turned to look at the newcomers. One was a cute, pudgy woman in a thick winter coat despite the slightly warm temperatures. The other, the one who’d spoken, was… a humanoid robot. He floated toward them, wearing only thin, loose pants similar to the robes of a monk. His upper body was metallic, filled with wires and pistons, yet he didn’t look bogged down by all the metal. His head was shiny, and instead of a face he had nine blue dots above two slits that could have been taken as either eyes or eyebrows.
“Oh. You’re a robot,” Rarity said, cocking her head. “Somehow that’s both completely unexpected and not that big of a deal.”
“Not that big of a deal?” Twilight blurted. “He’s a robot! Have any of us actually seen a fully self-autonomous intelligent machine before?”
Daniel raised his hand.
The floating robot monk pointed at Daniel. “Has your kind created machines like me?”
“No,” Daniel said, “We’ve just run into the creations of others.”
“And what were they like?”
Daniel let out a sharp breath of air. “No offense to you, but they were one of our major enemies.”
The robot nodded. “I do hope you can put that behind yourself. I am Zenyatta, agent of Overwatch, monk, and recenty, diplomat. To my left is Mei, a scientist who would be very happy if she could examine some of your devices at some point.”
Mei waved and smiled, clearly a bit nervous. Fluttershy waved back, trying to make her feel more welcome.
Twilight smiled at Zenyatta. “I take it Genji already told you our names?” Zenyatta nodded. “Then I guess it’s time for you to actually tell us about your world we’ve found ourselves in?”
Zenyatta pressed his hands together. “Travellers from afar, the story of our world is a complicated one, but it has been defined in recent years by a single issue – that of Omnics, and their relationship with humanity.”
“…You’re an Omnic, aren’t you?” Fluttershy asked.
“Yes. And that, friends, is a fact that gives many people fear, while others suffer hatred. You see, it was only a few decades ago that my kind was created – and that most of them declared war on humanity the world over. This Omnic Crisis, the war of man and machine, was horrendous, bloody, and caused more death than any other war in history. And that’s only counting the human casualties.”
“Oh,” Nova said. “That… That’s horrible.”
“That it was. I have never condoned the actions of my predecessors, but what’s done is done. The problem that faces us today is that Omnics and humans still don’t live in peace, and to make it worse the world doesn’t agree on a stance anymore. Nations like Japan are all for Omnic rights while Russia is fighting another war of man versus machine. You see, the discussion of Omnics is a difficult one likely to spark the worst of reactions from anyone. As outsiders, you could easily get the wrong idea from those who tell you. Omnics are not completely evil murderers. But we are not innocent.”
Rarity turned to Genji. “You were afraid you’d tell it wrong? Give us a bad idea?”
Genji nodded. “I am but a human infused with machines who barely knows his place in the world. Master is much wiser in the ways of the Omnics and humanity.”
“Do not put too much credit in my tale,” Zenyatta warned. “Even I am biased. Before you conclude, you should hear it from another. Our world is a turmoil of differing, strong opinions.”
Daniel nodded. “I plan on it. For now, though, we just need to talk about how to go forward with relations between our people from this point on, and to what exten-“
The sound of a gunshot rang through the air, ringing with the force of a sniper bullet. Zenyetta looked to his side, glancing at the shield the drone had created right in front of his face. “…Her.”
“Ambush!” Genji yelled, taking out his sword. Another shot rang out, and again the drone caught it. “Retreat!”
Twilight fumbled with the dimensional device, opening a portal back to Stargate Command. “Come on!”
“Not so fast…” a deep, haunting voice groaned. A misty shadow took form at the edge of their sights, taking the form of a man with a skull mask and two miniature shotguns. He fired them both at the group of humans, ponies, and Zenyatta. The drone could not catch all the bullets, but Genji leaped in with his sword to toss the shots back with a quick motion, the reflection added to by fire from Tracer’s miniature energy pistols.
Twilight finally managed to raise a magical shield around everyone, and Nova took the opportunity to use her magic to toss people back through the portal. A few more sniper shots went off, and the shadowy ‘man’ tried to phase through the shield, but their efforts were in vain. They all stumbled into Stargate Command and closed the portal behind them.
“It appears that Talon found us…” Genji said, sheathing his sword. “Widowmaker and Reaper at least, maybe others I couldn’t identify.”
“Talon?” Daniel asked, frowning.
“As I said, the world is in turmoil,” Zenyatta said. “There are misguided men who set themselves up as enemies.”
“I – and my people – will want to know more about them.”
“I will cooperate however I can.”
It was at this point Mei squeed. “Look at this device!” She pointed at the stargate and jumped. “It’s a teleporter of some kind isn’t it?”
“It’s a stargate,” Fluttershy said. “Takes you to other planets instantly.”
Mei’s jaw dropped. “…Tell me more.”
“I, uh… Don’t know much, actually.”
Nova raised an eyebrow at Daniel. “Should I just teleport everyone to the meeting room?”
“Yes!” Tracer said, clapping. “Do that! Do the teleport!”
Nova did.
~~~
General Sunset and Toph stood in front of the bars of a prison cell. Attempts to contact the Goddess Armonia had not gone well, which was to be expected, considering how mysterious she was. So they were visiting the prison for a possible other lead. The cell on the other side of the bars wasn’t unpleasant – the window was large, the mattress was well-kept, and there was a small bookshelf to one side.
The occupant was a mare by the name of Applejack.
“Who’s your friend?” She asked, glaring at Sunset from the bed.
“This is Toph. She’s from another world.”
“Hey,” Toph said.
Applejack shrugged in response. “So, what brings you two here today? Going to see if a third party will make lunch go any better? Or have you finally decided to kill me?”
Sunset shook her head. “Neither, actually. For once, I actually need something from you.”
This got Applejack’s attention. “Really…? So you’re not even goin’ to pretend you’re here out of the goodness of your heart? That’s an improvement, you should be proud. The next step is admittin’ to you’d be doin’ the world a favor by jumpin’ off the next cliff you see.”
Sunset sighed. “Applejack…”
“Just spit it out. What do you want?”
“We’re trying to hunt down the Sage that told you to get all those artifacts. She’s been causing a lot of trouble and we just can’t find her.”
“Tough luck. Ah haven’t the foggiest idea where she’d be,” Applejack said. “Guess you wasted your time.”
“You can know other things,” Toph said. “Like what kind of artifacts she asked you to get. We need to figure out why.”
“And why would Ah bother rackin’ my brain to remember all that useless crud? You’re definitely not worth it, and Ah’m pretty sure by refusin’ it won’t get you angry enough to off me, even if it should. So… Ah can sit pretty here and infuriate you all Ah want without a problem.” She winked.
“Look, Applejack, if you know something, just tell us. That Sage is up to no good. She manipulated us into fighting each other for years. Even if we don’t know what she’s planning, you’d have to at least agree that she’s up to no good and should be stopped.”
“Ah dunno Sunset, she could be tryin’ something evil, but it’d still be less evil than you.”
Sunset’s eye twitched. “Haven’t I done enough to prove to you that I’m not an evil wench?”
Applejack scowled. “See, this is it. This is why. It’s all just manipulation and control to you. All those lunches, all these books, all this time you spend coming to see me – it’s all part of your stupid mind games! You and the Queen want somethin’ from me! Well Ah’m not gonna give it! Ah’m not gonna fall for your false pretenses, ever! You may have everypony fooled but not me!”
Sunset growled. “Applejack, it’s just information about the Sage. There’s no way givin’ that up will harm anypony.”
“It would keep you from getting’ hurt. And, to be honest, praying that you’ll die someday is one of the few things that keeps me goin’ here.”
“Why are you such a stub-“ A pillar of earth shot out of the ground and hit Sunset in the face, knocking her to the ground, dazed.
Applejack blinked, then turned to Toph. “…Are you gonna bust me out or-“
“You are a stubborn moron,” Toph said, launching a rock hand out of the ground to grab Applejack by the midsection. “She’s kept you alive, fed you, and tried her hardest to be your friend! And what do you do to her?”
“What those manipulations deserve!”
Toph tossed Applejack into her bookshelf, splintering the wood. “You know why I knocked her out? Because she wouldn’t let me do this. Let me break you like a book. She wouldn’t do that to you. Thinks it’d be too damaging.”
“Lies!”
Toph tossed Applejack to the other side. “You really shouldn’t care about that right now. You should care that your protector is lying unconscious on the floor and that I can make you enter a much more extreme world of hurt than you’ve ever experienced.”
“You think I’ll crack? Please!”
Toph cracked the bars of the cell open, walking in. She tossed a rock into Applejack’s face with her bare foot. “Every person has the point where the pain’s too much.”
“You know nothing, girl.”
Toph threw Applejack up, then down again. “Just let go of your hate for one measly second and tell us some of those things she had you get!”
“She’s lying to you too, you know. She lies to everyone. She is a lie. Everything is a lie!”
Toph twitched. “You’re an idiot!” She grabbed another rock and threw it – only for a yellow magic aura to grab it and toss it into her face. Toph went skidding backward, out of the cell.
Sunset screamed at her. “TOPH! APPLEJACK IS NOT TO BE HARMED!”
“Stop feigning concern!” Applejack yelled. “Quit your games!”
Sunset turned to Applejack, flinging tears. She couldn’t force herself to say anything. She just stared at Applejack, unable to respond.
Toph sat up, groaning. “You two are a couple of idiots.”
Applejack raised her eyebrow. “How so?”
“Sunset’s an idiot for trying so hard to be your friend, and you’re an idiot for being unable to even think that you’re wrong.”
“Ah’m not wrong.”
Toph shrugged. “You sure think that.”
Sunset sighed, wiping her face. “Applejack, what do you want from me?”
“Ah want you to go kill yourself.”
Sunset shook her head. “I mean, what do you want for you?”
“Ah want you to stop ‘bein’ my friend’, or whatever it is you’ve been hornswaggling with me.”
Sunset glanced to Toph. “You’re right. I’m being stupid. There does come a point where you should just cut your losses.” Sunset turned to Applejack with sad eyes. “Tell me about all the artifacts the Sage sent you to find and you’ll never see me again.”
Applejack thought about this for a moment. “You won’t come back for any more lunches, any more talks, nothin’?”
“Nothing.”
“You have yourself a deal.”
Sunset sat down, admitting defeat. She took out her smartphone. “Okay, just tell us everything you know. This device will record everything.”
“That must be handy.”
“It is. The sooner you start talking the sooner you can have us out of here.”
“Best news Ah’ve heard all year. Ah met the Sage almost instantly after you slaughtered my entire village, it was as if she knew Ah was destined for something great from that moment on. Of course, she was an absolute cryptic nutcase half the time…”
~~~
Fluttershy sat in the back of the room while Daniel, Landry, Genji, Zenyatta, Twilight, Rarity, and Pinkie discussed politics. Fluttershy found herself thinking how redundant all this seemed – how many times had they talked to new worlds like this? A dozen? Even though she had virtually no idea exactly how the politics worked, she still found it same-ey. Usually everyone started on different pages with different prejudices, and those had to be worked out first. More often than not both sides wanted a positive relationship, so they would seek that out. And in the end, after several hours of discussion, they’d find some way to continue said relationship. If humans were involved, there’d be paperwork. If it was just ponies, not so much.
She yawned to herself, trying not to fall asleep – that’d just be rude. She needed to stay awake. This was difficult since the most interesting thing that had happened was a flickering light that made Daniel lose his train of thought.
Mei wheeled her chair over to Fluttershy. “Hey, how are you doing?” she whispered, so as not to interrupt the actual talks.
Fluttershy shrugged. “Bored. Annoyed with politics. Trying not to fall asleep.”
“Ah, yeah, I feel that. I’m just a scientist. I’m starting to wonder why I’m here – I haven’t actually gotten to look at much of your technology.”
Fluttershy smiled. “They thought we had advanced technology, so they sent you along just in case. I’m sure once they hammer something out you’ll get your chance.”
“Probably. So… those ponies your closest friends?”
“Yeah. I’ve known them for several years now. Best friends I’ve ever had.”
“Do they let you speak up?”
Fluttershy raised an eyebrow. “Uh… Why do you ask?”
“Well, it’s just that you’ve been rather quiet this whole time, and I know everybody has things to say-“
“It’s because I’m Fluttershy isn’t it,” Fluttershy muttered.
“...Huh?”
“Look, Mei, I appreciate what you’re trying to do. But I don’t feel ashamed to speak my mind. I just don’t feel like I need to say anything – we’ve just done this so many times. So, so many times.”
“Oh. I-I’m sorry, I misjudged you.”
“…It’s a thing people tend to do…” Fluttershy said. “My friends suggest I remove the ‘shy’ from my name, become just ‘Flutters’. I’m just not sure if I want to, really…”
Tracer poked her head in on the conversation. “Well, I don’t know you at all, but I think Flutters is a great name for you! It sounds like freedom, breeze, the wind. Someone aloof and gentle!”
“Thanks, Tracer. Still…” she bit her lip. “Am I just being stubborn?”
“Yes,” Nova said, rolling her chair in. “Accept the Flutters, Flutters. Accept it.”
Fluttershy took in a breath. “I… You know what, no. I am not Flutters. I am Flutterfree. I have broken free from the shyness. I am Flutterfree Asquall.”
“…Asquall?” Tracer said, cocking her head.
“It’s like Squall, but the A means ‘against the squall,” Flutterfree explained.
“Works for me,” Nova said. “Congrats, Flutterfree.”
“Hey! You four!” Pinkie called over to them. “Are you even paying attention? Or am I going to have to come over there and drag your ears back!”
“S-sorry!” Mei said.
Pinkie shrugged. “It’s okay. I think we need your attention back now, though. Zenyatta’s about to decide on a thing!”
Zenyatta nodded. “That I have. General Landry, Princess Twilight, your offers are both selfless and grandiose. But I am afraid I have to decline strong relations, for many reasons which have already been discussed to some extent. The largest of which is that we are simply not ready, as a world, to take the step beyond. We are on the brink of a major global crisis that could spark into all out war at any moment, a war that will just spill outward and result in more destruction were we to have access to the rest of the multiverse. Furthermore, Overwatch is technically an illegal organization in the eyes of international law, and we have no real authority to establish such immense ties. Using our camaraderie that we’ve developed, we simply ask that you refrain from establishing a presence on ‘Earth Omnic’. All we wish is for a way to contact you if, and when, we deem we are ready, or have gone on an irreversible path of self-destruction.”
“Wait what?” Tracer blurted. “I thought we were making allies here!”
“You haven’t been paying attention,” Genji said. “We’ve been leaning towards this conclusion for some time now.”
Flutterfree blinked. “I… Guess it makes sense, though. Not everyone wants to join. Though you are the first I know of who just admitted they aren’t ready.”
“Bollocks!” Tracer blurted. “We’re more than ready!”
Zenyatta shook his head. “Tracer, our world as a whole is not, even if you in particular are. We have more to think about than just ourselves and how to win our personal battles. On an issue this large, even Talon’s threat means little. Perhaps one day, we will be able to rise above our own conflict. That day is not today.”
Tracer looked like she wanted to object but decided not to. She just folded her arms and sat back.
Daniel nodded slowly. “We can send you back home then with a subspace beacon. We’ll check in every now and then to see if it’s active.”
“Thank you for your time,” Zenyatta said. “We request that you take us somewhere apart from where you picked us up the first time, so we may avoid the likely ambush waiting for us.”
Landry called the Hammond. “Prepare to take four to E-17 and beam them wherever their home base is.”
Mei frowned. “We have to go already?”
“You get to ride in their ship, first,” Genji reminded her.
“That’s nice and all, but…” she looked at the ponies. “I wanted to get to know all of you better…”
Pinkie smiled. “Well, hurry up and solve your world’s problems so you can come back to visit us! Okay?”
Tracer gave Pinkie a thumbs up. “You’ve got it!”
Flutterfree waved. “Goodbye then! Thanks for getting me to keep my new name. And not shooting us.”
Zenyatta bowed. “Thank you for not holding those shots against us. Old war machines die hard, and world governments are paranoid about spaceships in their space.”
“Believe it or not, we can relate,” Daniel said. “We’ll be waiting for you.”
The four Overwatch heroes were beamed onto the Hammond, which prepared to take them home.
Daniel yawned. “Well that ended up being nothi-“
The lights flickered again. Landry frowned. “Two times in one day? That’s… Odd.” He walked out of the meeting room and down to the control room, followed by Daniel and the ponies. “Walter, run a systems diagnostic on the power systems.”
Walter ran the diagnostic. “Everything checks out, sir. It was just a random fluctuation.”
“…Right…” Landry shrugged. “Well, Twilight, thanks for your help, I think that’s all we needed.”
“Didn’t you want me to teleport-proof some areas of the base?”
Daniel nodded. “That’s right! Gate room first – we don’t need the stargate getting stolen. It’s the primary thing the oversight has been yelling about lately.”
Nova laughed nervously. “Definitely not…”
“You’re on that list as well. Did you know that we had to fight against the lawyers to even let you on the base again, Nova?”
“Uh… Sorry again?” she sighed. “Really, I know I messed up big time there, and I know it’s still causing everybody problems. But… you humans do not move on quickly, do you?”
“Sometimes I wonder if we ever forget…” Daniel muttered.
Twilight shrugged. “I don’t know. What I do know is that Nova and I are going to teleport-proof your high security rooms to help her earn your trust.”
Nova nodded. “Right.”
~~~
A few hours later, Twilight and Nova were teleport-proofing a room devoted to storing alien weapons, ranging from the simple snakelike Zat guns to bizarre hefty conglomerations that supposedly could hit out-of-phase beings.
Twilight was slowly working her way along the south wall, clearly glad this was the last major room they needed to seal, ready for the hard work to be done. Nova was feeling similarly exhausted, but she kept herself held a little higher as she worked along the north wall.
Coming to a corner, she maneuvered herself behind several stacks of boxes, trying to get to the very edge of the room. After she accomplished this, she turned around to find a woman in black and purple standing over her.
Nova blinked. “Uh… Hi?”
The woman smirked playfully, and yet somehow malevolently. “Sorry about this, I just can’t resist.” She reached out one of her fingers, allowing Nova to see her long purple ‘nails’ laced with circuitry. She touched Nova on the nose. “Boop!”
“Wha-?” And then the woman vanished in thin air.
“Nova, what was that?” Twilight asked, walking over to her. “I thought I heard someone.”
“…I think the base has an intruder,” Nova said, rubbing her nose. “She… she booped me.”
“Intruder?” Twilight’s ears perked up as the main doors to the storage room opened – and no one came in or out.
“Invisible intruder,” Nova said, rushing out into the hallway and scanning for anything – she found nothing. “Great… Daniel!”
“What?” he called, running over.
“There’s an intruder! Woman, medium size, purple-black getup, half-shaved head, strange circuitry nails! We-“
The alarms in the base began to go off. Walter’s voice could be heard over the intercom. “We’ve been compromised! Virus detected in the system database!”
Twilight lit her horn, preparing to teleport to the control room. She facehooved. “We just teleport proofed everything. Gah!”
Daniel took off at a run. “It’s not that far. Come on!”
The three of them ran down the hallways to the control room, taking two flights of stairs. Along the way they saw almost every computer screen was displaying a pink hexagon with a skull design inside of it. Some of those skulls looked like they were laughing.
“How badly were we just compromised?” Daniel asked as he ran into the control room with the two ponies.
“Badly,” Landry said, gesturing at all the corrupted computer screens. “We’ve lost control of virtually every system. We can’t even remove the lockdown on the gateroom!”
Twilight looked at the pink skull. “Do we know whose symbol this is?”
“No,” Landry said. “It’s not anything we’ve seen before-“
“Then you best remember it well!” the voice of the woman rang through the base intercom. “Because I want my name to burn into your minds as I rob you blind.”
“Who are you?” Landry yelled.
A portal opened sideways in the gateroom, at such an angle they couldn’t see into it well enough to determine where it led. The doors to the jumper bay above the gateroom glowed purple, opening up with a loud clang. A Puddlejumper dropped out of the ceiling, tumbling nicely into the large open portal. The portal shut, and the woman dropped from the ceiling, bowing. She grinned and pointed at them through the glass. “Nice expressions!”
Nova closed her mouth.
The woman pointed at herself, grin still huge. “I am Sombra. Remember the name of the woman who beat the ‘most secure government base’ in your nation!” She pulled a dimensional device out of her jacket and prepared to open a portal, but something stopped her. “You know what? I think I can stick around and brag a little bit. You’re not going to be able to remove my virus from your computers for a few hours, this entire room is teleport proof, and by the time you’re able to break through that bulletproof glass I can be gone.” She chuckled.
“Why?” Nova asked. “What did we do to you?”
“Nothing!” Sombra grinned. “You just showed up and gave me an opportunity! You see, I got ahold of a pair of amazing files, one about a spaceship that randomly appeared in orbit, transmitted a message, and then left; and another from a long-forgotten Omnic sentry firing at the same people! What luck, I had found a connection, and I also had a plan. You see, amigos, I disabled all the turrets there as soon as I could, then sent a covert report to Overwatch to draw their interest. Something that suggested, oh, possible alien invasion location, as well as secret Talon business. And then I wait – and sure enough, both Overwatch and a delightful bunch of ponies show up! But, alas, their portal does not stay open long enough for me to slip through…” She put her fingers to her face, sad.
“Aha, but then, I have an idea. I can force them back through if I just give Talon the same report, and even make them think I’ve got a plan to help them! Oh, wondrous! So in the chaos of a firefight, I slip through the escape portal and make my way into your base. Then, as you are so distracted with meetings and teleport-proofing the place, I work my magic unnoticed! Cause a few power surges, but nothing major. It’s just so easy since all your computers are antiquated versions of mine! I load physical tons of items onto a Puddlejumper and, since the computer system of that ship is too complex for a quick job, I just dump it in a portal you won’t be able to trace!” She clapped her hands together. “And now here we are, after I’ve mocked a unicorn and made you all wish you hadn’t made this room impossible to teleport into!”
Nova glared. “That doesn’t answer why.”
Sombra pointed a finger at her. “You know why, little thief. I just want things to help me. I want to find the truth. With these devices, I’ve come to realize that my little world is puny and pathetic, and that I could stand to expand my horizons. I’m going to find out what’s really in charge.” She took out the dimensional device and set it to a random location. “Adios!”
Then Sombra was gone.
Daniel shook his head. “I suddenly have the feeling that we were never in charge of anything today.”
Twilight looked at the sugar skull on every computer screen. “…Should we even try to chase her?”
Nova frowned. “She planned this out far too much. She’s long gone. No way we can get to her now with what we have.”
“Pulled a better heist than you,” Landry commented.
“Gee, thanks.” She glared at one of the skulls. “Is it really going to take a few hours to get rid of these things?”
Of course, the answer was yes.
~~~
The black form of Reaper threw his shotguns on the ground next to the thin, bluish form of Widowmaker. “She’s not coming back,” he muttered.
“Have patience. Sombra can take care of herself,” Widowmaker responded without emotion.
“She could have betrayed us or fallen prey to that ‘magic’ those ponies had.”
“She’s not stupid enough to outright betray us nor fall to unknown powers.”
“That’s what you think…” Reaper muttered, blasting a tree to shreds with another shotgun conjured out of nowhere.
Widowmaker’s phone started buzzing. She frowned. “I had that off.”
Reaper grabbed the phone and answered it. “Sombra…”
The phone went to speakerphone automatically, blasting Reaper’s ears out with the volume. “Hey Talon! This is a recorded message from… Sombra! Just wanted you to know, I am now closer to the truth than I ever thought possible! You’ll probably never see me again! Adios, it was a pleasure working with you!”
Reaper stared at the phone. “…I’m surprised she didn’t end with that ‘boop’ she’s so fond of.”
“Boop!” the phone blurted.
Reaper threw the phone onto the ground and crushed it under his foot. Then he pulled out another shotgun and blasted it to smithereens.
“You owe me a new phone,” Widowmaker deadpanned.
“Fine. Whatever. Don’t care. Going back to base now. This day has been a complete waste of everyone’s time. I hope that gorilla summoned an alien invasion or something.”
Widowmaker put her gun away and started walking. “You’ll have to call the getaway vehicle,” she said.
Reaper angrily tore his phone out of his pocket. There was no message, but the background had been changed to a picture of Sombra smirking.
It took every ounce of his self-control not to crush the device in his hands.
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ugh.....whats up with everybody playing everybody like a fiddle?
I have the distinct sense that Sombra's going to fall victim to her own hubris. If we ever do see her again, it won't be pretty.
I suppose we'll find out.
Or she could prove me wrong and show up getting a piggyback ride from Lord English himself.
In any case, major kudos to Zenyatta for the mature, measured reaction to the situation. It's sad but true; that powder keg of a world shouldn't be allowed to go off on the entire local multiverse. Not until either it's been defused or the dust settles.
(That said, now I can't help but worry that someone's going to find themselves stuck in the Nexus. At least Chromie knows how to fix the place in theory...)
As for the Applejack we saw here... Her life has been ruined, I agree with that much. I din't think she'll ever appreciate just who ruined it. Not for quite some time, at the very least. Still, I can't help but wonder if meeting Luna moght force her to question her own beliefs. It'll be very hard to convince herself that anyone quite like that is an evil, soulless tyrant. Though if anyone's up to the challenge, it's that stubborn fool.
Eagerly looking forward to more.
So we have Ba'al wandering the multiverse with Majora's Mask
Azula is wandering around Earth Vitas
and now Sombra from the Overwatch Universe (not to be confused with the Sombra of MLP) is traversing the multiverse in a stolen puddlejumper.
8671691
The Pinkie Sage! I'm sure she doesn't have some nefarious plan! Not at ALLLL.
-GM, master of muahaha.
8671704
Not to mention the two individuals who had a romp across the multiverse at the beginning of the story, as well as whatever organizations they might have been a part of. They surely won't notice the chaos the ponies are causing through the multiverse, and intervene.
"I beleive the word you're looking for is "British" Fluttershy."
She.
I like that the story enphisizes individual identity with the characters making new names for themselves differentiate them from there counterparts.
Wow, I really dislike this Sombra.